crazed monkey

Before I was rudely interrupted by a “rolling blackout”, I was recounting my indecision as to whether I should ride to Jenever’s in the darkness. After much deliberation, I started packing a few necessities. I stopped a few times, knowing I was insane to even attempt the trip. I finally decided to make the journey, mapping out an easy route along Eglinton, southbound on Laird to Donlands, then east on Danforth to Victoria Park and finally south to Kingston Road. I figured Eglinton and Danforth would be well-lit by cars, but knew that Laird, Donlands and Victoria Park would be pitch black. Opting for some visible gear, I made my way out the door.

Riding on Eglinton was quick and fairly easy. At some points, I managed to keep up with the cars. I was pedalling as fast as possible so that my ride was as short as possible. Laird was less travelled but still a relatively easy ride. As with earlier in the day, there were few cars heading southbound, but enough to light my way. I couldn’t quite make out the street signs and so was navigating by landmarks alone. At one point I reached an intersection which looked familiar, and took it to be Danforth. There were quite a few cars on the road, so this confirmed my belief. Travelling further, however, the road became increasingly dark and less like Danforth. When I crossed St. Clair, I knew I wasn’t where I thought I should be.

I stopped a few blocks to ask a group of people which street I was travelling on and how I could get to Victoria Park. I felt like an idiot, but what was I supposed to do? To my dismay, I found out that I had turned off too early onto O’Connor Drive and was now heading north towards Eglinton and Victoria Park. My resolve and confidence sagging, worry and regret finally started to seep in. However, I couldn’t turn back. It was really only a matter of riding down Victoria Park.

Unfortunately, Victoria Park was darker in parts than I had feared. It would have been easier if there was more traffic. I often found myself hoping for a car to pull up behind me so that I could see what was ahead. The worst were the parked cars, which often appeared as only a gleam just in front of me. To make matters worse, cars travelling northbound temporarily stole precious moments from me, blinding me with their headlights. Several pedestrians yelled or muttered, mostly in disagreement, as I passed them on the road.

When I finally reached Kingston Road, I knew I was home free. A street car rested in the dark like a slumbering behemoth, undisturbed by the cars making their way around its body. I was able to get a few cars to stop so that I could cross and make my way to Jenever’s. Moments later I was in her friend’s yard, greeted by the smells of barbeque.

With power resumptions an uncertainty, I spent Friday and most of Saturday as a guest of Heather and Jeff, who own the house in which Jenever lives. Without them, I don’t think that this weekend would have been enjoyable in the least. I rode back to my place on Friday to check on things and pick up some extra clothes to stay another night. Even though the power switched back on at my place early Saturday morning, and then back on again when I returned Saturday evening, I was not taking my chances. I am very grateful for Heather, Jeff and Jenever’s hospitality, for their food, their spare bedroom and their company.

All in all, the weekend went pretty well and, frankly, was better than average, even considering the outage. I missed my niece’s birthday party at her grandparents’ because of the weather on Saturday (the heat and humidity meant I would have arrived on my bike drenched in sweat) and because I was much too tired from all the riding (over 100km in a few rapid trips) to make it out to High Park. However, I was still able to catch The Lion King with my niece and the rest of my family this afternoon.

Posted on August 17th, 2003 in meta, person - No Comments »

As I biked in to work yesterday, heading home was business as usual for me, save for the busy traffic on the roads. Thankfully, I only travel through a handful of intersections on my ride and so there wasn’t much problem getting home. Most of my ride is on trails, so I was able to avoid the mass exodus of traffic.

When almost home, I heard one woman mention to someone else that the entire grid was affected, from New York to Ottawa to Detroit. This seemed so outrageous that I refused to believe it. (I wasn’t able to confirm the extent of the outage until I was able to speak to my sister at around 7pm.)

Once home, I didn’t know what to do and so passed the time trying to get a hold of everyone close to me. Unfortunately, many of those only had access to cell phones and so I wasn’t able to get a hold of all of them. The only time I was worried was when my parents didn’t answer their phone. Talking to my mother later, she said they went out to get something to eat, thinking it was only their neighbourhood which was out.

Thinking for a moment, I was secretly hoping that the power didn’t come back on before midnight as this would result in an excellent opportunity to see the stars in the city. I vowed to head to an open area later for some gazing.

Figuring that the best action was outside, I set out on my bike for a short trip around the city. Yonge and Eglinton was packed as the station and the bus bays were closed. The swarms of people making their way up Yonge had to wait on the curbs for busses to disgorge their loads, only to fill up again. Mount Pleasant was busy northbound but completely deserted southbound, making for a fun ride down to Carlton. It was the Becel Ride for Heart all over again!

It was really nice to see people dropping everything and taking over various intersections, directing traffic until the police came by. At one intersection on Mount Pleasant, one man was being constantly thanked by passing motorists. At another near Church and Wellesley, a policeman just arriving at a manned intersection, beamed and heartedly thanked the volunteer who was there.

There were lineups everywhere, mostly at bus stops and hot dog stands. I considering trying to get a hot dog, as I was craving warm food, but decided I didn’t want to wait in line.

Heading home from downtown was a little more difficult as every major road was packed and moving quite slowly. Travelling up Bay, I hit my right pedal on the curb and nearly lost my shoe trying to squeeze past the cars. The pedal hasn’t been the same since.

Arriving home for the second time, I went to have a shower expecting luke warm water at best. I was instead greeted with hot, soothing water. I had forgotten that our building’s water heater is gas-powered. Ideas on how to exploit this fact flashed through my head. These ideas were pushed to the wayside as I realised that there was a gas stove where my friend Jenever lived! A gas stove meant warm food! However, it was getting late and dark and there was no way I would have been able to get there before it was pitch black out.

Talking to Jenever, I realised that I had no blackout amenities in my apartment. I had no flashlights, no batteries, no working radio and only a few tea lights as a source of light. Without light, information, conversation and only the constant rhythmic buzzing of an alarm downstairs to keep me company, I knew I would go mad. Jenever offered to put me up for the night, but that meant biking from Yonge and Eglinton to the Beaches in darkness, with no headlight. It was too dangerous to risk, or so I thought.

I wrote a continuation of this entry once power was restored after a rolling blackout.

Posted on August 15th, 2003 in meta, person - No Comments »